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CEO Brizard's Listening Tour

The new CEO of CPS kicks off a city-wide listening tour to talk with students, teachers and principals

May 31, 2011

Jean-Claude Brizard, the new chief executive officer at the Chicago Public Schools, is spending his first weeks on the job visiting schools as part of a citywide listening tour. The goal of the listening tour is to engage Chicagoans in a dialog about local and city-wide educational issues.

Mr. Brizard kicked off his listening tour on Thursday, May 26, at Guggenheim Elementary where he was joined by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Alderwoman Latasha Thomas. Brizard talked with students at Guggenheim, located in Englewood, as they began their science lessons on laptops. Brizard started his career as a junior high school science teacher in the New York City public education system.

Brizard also visited Benito Juarez Community Academy High School in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. He spoke with eighth grade students visiting Juarez for the first time as part of the CPS High School Investigation Day and he sat in on a chemistry class where he talked with students about their aspirations.

On Friday, Brizard visited Howe Elementary School in the Austin community. After sitting in on a number of classes, he met with students to discuss their science experiments.

After the Memorial Day holiday, Brizard continued his listening tour Tuesday morning, visiting with students and administrators at Libby Elementary School in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.

Brizard will visit a school nearly every day until the end of the school year, engaging directly with principals, teachers and students. These visits afford him the opportunity to learn first-hand the challenges facing schools and the best practices in education. During the listening tour, Brizard will spend time in communities across the city, speaking with groups of students, principals, teachers, faith leaders and community organizations as he begins to formulate a plan of action.

Keep checking back with cps.edu to see more photos and updates from CEO Brizard’s listening tour.

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Chicago Public Schools is the third largest school district in the United States with more than 600 schools and serves 371,000 children. Our vision is that every student in every neighborhood will be engaged in a rigorous, well-rounded instructional program and will graduate prepared for success in college, career and life.